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It is that time again – the Minnesota Furs 2019 board elections!

For those that do not know, the Minnesota Furs is a 501c3 non-profit recognized by the state and federal government. As part of this, we are required to have a board of directors. By law there must be a process to choose a board of directors. While we could choose the board of directors based on things like who has the best fursuit, who wins a poker match, or who the current board think should be running the Minnesota Furs – we don’t do that.

Because while some of those sound tempting to chose it that way, we are doing an elected board of directors chosen by the volunteers of Minnesota Furs. These people are who help make Minnesota Furs what it is.

With that, we are proud to announce the Minnesota Furs 2019 board election process.

For this year we have 3 board positions available. This positions do not have assigned jobs, they are general positions on the board. Anyone can run for these seats, including the people that held these previous seats – Aerak, Dei, and Kiguel. Previous board experience is not required but a love of the Minnesota Furs community is.

Part 1

Nominations

Anyone can be nominated for board of directors as long as they have at least 20 hours of recorded volunteer hours with Minnesota Furs at nomination close (Jan 31st).
Nominations can be done by ANY MEMBER of the community including the person who is being nominated.

To nominate a person for Minnesota Furs 2019 board of directors send an email to elections@mnfurs.org. Subject line: Nomination, and include name (fur and legal) and email address to contact the nominee. The election community will verify the intent and if they fulfill the requirements to be elected.

All nominations must be done by 11:59 pm January 31st, 2019.

Also during this time, we invite the candidates will come to our open board meeting(s). We hope to help our candidates get an idea what being a board member is about.

Part 2

The Community Get To Know the Candidates

As part of the election process, we want the community to know the candidates. We don’t want this to be a popularity contest – we want this to be about who is the right people to help steer the Minnesota Furs board and community in the right directions. Lots of hard work goes into being on the board and their work affects not only the now but also years to come.

We have 2 opportunities for our candidates to be involved with the election process.

Candidate Questionnaire – Candidates are given a chance to answer a range of questions and introduce themselves. They are due on February 14th to be posted online before the Candidate Discussion. Any late submissions may be rejected by the election committee.

Candidate Discussion – Done in a Q & A format that allows our candidates a chance to communicate ideas and answer questions from both the election committee and the general community. It will be held on Sunday February 17th at 10:30am at Geek Partnership Society(GPS) Room 106A. The community and voting public is able to participate and is RECOMMENDED to show up.

Part 3

Voting

All members of Minnesota Furs community who have volunteered 20 hours by helping out Minnesota Furs and associated events like Furry Migration or Werecamp can vote in the election. People must have 20 hours of recognized volunteer time by March 1st. Any hours submitted after March 1st will be used in the 2020 election.

Voting starts at the Furry Migration convention meeting March 2nd, 2019 at GPS.

The second voting opportunity will be Wednesday, March 13th at GPS room 106.

We will provide off site absentee ballots starting on March 2nd, 2018. To get an absentee ballot the voter must have enough hours and request a vote by email to elections@mnfurs.org by the voter themselves. Ballots must be receive before 7:00pm March 13th, 2019.

Additional voting locations may become available. If they do, it will be announced on Minnesota Furs before March 1st, 2019.

Date For Candidates and Voting Members

1/5 Oval Fur Meet and Holiday Party

1/9 January Board Meeting

1/31 Candidate Nominations Close

2/2 Send candidates their questionnaire

2/2 Furry Migration Concom meeting

2/6 February Board Meeting

2/10 Oval Meet

2/14 Candidate questionnaires are due

2/17 Discussion with Candidates 10:30 AM-1:00 PM GPS Room 106A

3/1 Deadline to submit Volunteer Hours. Hours must be submitted to vote!

3/2 Absentee voting begins

3/2 Furry Migration Concom and voting

3/6 March Board Meeting

3/13 Absentee voting ends at 7 pm

3/13 Final in person election from 6pm to 8pm at GPS ROOM 106

3/13 9pm board results are announced at GPS

4/3 April Board Meeting

4/26-4/28 April Board Retreat

While we hope we do not need to change anything, the election committee reserves the right (within reason) to change or add dates/time/location of events as needed.

Q&A

Voters

Q) What is a voting member?A) We are all members of Minnesota Furs. Voting members are people who volunteer 20 or more hours helping out Minnesota Furs and their events.

Q) How do I get voting hours?A) By helping out Minnesota Furs perform their nonprofit role. This can include volunteering to run or help out events like picnics or an Oval meet, throwing an event that is recognized by MNFurs as an MNFurs activity, volunteering or staffing for Furry Migration, volunteering for Werecamp, and helping out the election committee! These hours must be verified by Minnesota Furs before being accepted and must be submitted before March 1st, 2019. Any volunteer hours happening after that date will be applied to the 2020 elections.

Q) Will there be additional voting opportunities?A) In the past we had another day at the Oval Meet in March. At this time, we do not have that schedule. If we have another opportunity to have voting at a meet that does not conflict with other community events we will see if we can make in person elections available there.

Attend board meetings – attendance of board meetings by board staff is required by bylaws of Minnesota Furs. Times are set by a consensus the board.

Attend the Board Retreat held in April

Keep in good standing in community. This includes 20 hours of volunteer hours outside of direct board duties. Expect to put in a significant amount of hours beyond that – average board member for a non profit puts in at least 200-600 hours of volunteer work per year.

Your job is not to run events and conventions like Werecamp, Furry Migration, but to be the oversite to make sure they are meeting their duties from our status as a non profit.

Need to have Leadership and Management Skills.

Need to communicate, coordinate, and manage the departments in their purview.

Q) If I become a board members of Minnesota Furs do I get paid?A) Minnesota Furs board members do not get paid.

Q) Why does everything seems to be bunched in beginning of February?A) We have a limited time to fit everything in between the March convention meeting which is usually one of our first voting event. We also have other community events in both Furry (Werecamp), FurSquared, Gamicon, and our partner events (Anime Detour) that are happening during that month and we have to work around them.

Q) I am a private furry and I don’t want my information out there publically. Can I do this anonymously or just use my fur name?A) Being part of a board of directors of a nonprofit requires us to report your name to the government and have it available publically. You have to expect people to be able to find that you are part of the organization and the Furry Fandom.

Q) Last year we had candidate commercials why don’t you have them this year?A) While we know those were popular in previous years, due to timing and volunteering constraints we do not have the resources to have them this year.

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